The popularity of specialty coffee has exploded in recent years due largely to its quality and flavor differences and the variety it offers. It's distinguished from commercial coffee by the beans used and by the ways in which those beans are roasted, blended and flavored. While many commercial coffees comprise over-roasted Robusta beans, specialty coffee beans, almost exclusively Arabica, are carefully roasted to achieve a unique and delicious taste for each kind of bean or blend.
 

As a phenomenon, specialty coffee can trace its roots to the 1960's when coffee consumption was flagging. Poor quality, high prices and the limited selection of available coffees all contributed to the downturn. To offer alternatives, a handful of savvy "specialty roasters" began to buy and roast specialty coffee beans. They were then sold to the public as unblended or straight varietals coffees from numerous origins, such as, Hawaii, Jamaica, Kenya and Colombia. They were also offered in a variety of roasts from medium "Full City" to dark "French Roast," and were sold in whole bean form in specialty coffee shops.
 

During the late 1970's coffee consumption rallied, and the growth of the coffee market since has made coffee the second most traded commodity after oil.
 

There are several types of coffee beans, the two most popular of which are Coffee Arabica and Coffee Robusta. Arabica beans are used most by the Specialty Coffee Industry, because they have a cleaner and richer coffee flavor.
 

Other Distinctions
 

Arabica beans:

• Require less coffee to yield a proper cup;
• Can be consumed as straight or in blends;
• Have less caffeine than Robusta beans (approx. 1-2% less);
• Are more labor intensive to grow, harvest and process;
• Are 99% hand-picked; and,
• Are most costly.

Robusta beans:

• Have harsh, bitter taste qualities
• Are almost always used in commercial blends;
• Have more caffeine than Arabica beans (approx. 2-3%);
• Require more coffee to yield a cup;
• Are most often machine harvested; and,
• Are less costly.

In coffee-producing/-exporting countries beans are grown by a number of different types of farmers in Central and South America, Africa, Indonesia and Hawaii. Small farmers and their families grow it on individual plots of land. Farm cooperatives grow it on numerous land tracts, and it is also grown on estates.
 

In countries importing coffees, there are myriad middle men, importers, green bean coffee brokers and coffee cuppers (who evaluate green coffee), roasters, packagers, retailers and baristas who tend the coffee bars. Overall, the industry employs close to twenty-one million people who usher beans from tree to cup.
 

Not all coffees are indigenous to where they are grown. For instance, the Dutch transplanted coffee on the island of Java in Indonesia. The French took a cutting from a coffee tree belonging to Louis IV and brought it to the Island of Reunion in the Caribbean Sea. From there it found a home in Central America. The Portuguese brought a coffee "cutting" from Africa to Brazil.
 

Where Coffee Is Grown
 

Coffee is grown in over fifty countries worldwide at altitudes of from 2,500 to 6,000 feet. Grown in the narrow belt separating the Tropic of Cancer from the Tropic of Capricorn (the Equatorial region of the world), the top coffee-producing nations are in Central and South America, Africa and Indonesia.
 

How It Grows
 

Coffee grows on evergreen shrubs which can tower as high as 25 feet in the wild. It requires rich soil, significant rainfall, tropical temperatures, shade and overall "spring like" conditions year round. It takes from 3-5 years before a coffee tree will bear fruit.
 

The tree first blooms with white, jasmine scented flowers. Six to nine months later the once green cherries will be red or yellow and ripe for harvest! The seed of the coffee fruit, known as the coffee cherry, is what we actually roast and drink.